Sunday, December 13, 2009

I had expected a flood of comments regarding the proposed Touch move rules for theBlitz championship. But perhaps our players have been watching the videos from the recent World Blitz Championship in Moscow, or the BNbank Blitz Norway tournament.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

We will be having a special Blitz Chess (Five minute) night on Tuesday, December 15 at the University of Winnipeg, Room 4CM42.

As GM Boris Alterman says in his lectures on ICC, "Now, pay attention".

The event will have two sections - The main event will be the 2009 Winnipeg Blitz Championship - a knockout tournament (seeded Wimbledon style). So, I am projecting the top 16 entrants will play in the knockout.

But all players will also be simultaneously entered in a Swiss tournament. So, if a player is knocked out of the Championship section, they will continue to play in the Swiss section, carrying over the match points they earned in the knockout section.

Each round will consist of a 2 player match - alternating colours. If the match is tied after two games, an Armageddon one-game playoff will occur. White 5 minutes, Black 4 minutes with draw odds (that means the Black player "wins" if the Armageddon game is a draw). Higher rated player gets to choose which colour he will play in the Armageddon.

If there are 16 players in the knockout section - only 4 rounds will be required to determine the Champion - at a max of 30 minutes per round - that is only two hours. If there is closer to 32 players - an extra round will be required.

The Swiss will have the same number of rounds.

After those tournaments are over, we will have a "fun" (no prizes - just bragging rights) Swiss Blitz tournament that will use up the time to say 10:30 or so - so probably a 4 or 5 round single game per round - approximately an hour.